Masterplan Community and Education Project /  by Martin Toft

Thanks to Jersey Evening Post for reporting on Masterplan Project community and education programme with Hautlieu School exploring the Future of St Helier through photography. Over the summer Photography A-Level students will be producing a 48 page newspaper supplement that will be inserted into a daily edition of the Jersey Evening Post and distributed island wide in September 2018. The newspaper design will also become a street art installation on the hoarding of the construction of the International Finance Centre Jersey (IFC Jersey) on the Esplanade. Thanks also to our sponsors, supporters and collaborators Jersey Development Company, Cameron’s, Archisle, Photo-Archive Societe-Jersiaise and Simon Crowcroft#masterplan #futureofsthelier,

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Te Ahi Kā shortlisted for Kassel Dummy Award 2018 /  by Martin Toft

Making a book is always a collaboration so I like to thank Ania Nałęcka-Milach for help with clever design, Rafal Milach for editing & sequencing and of course my Māori family and friends for being part of telling the story about our ancestral river, the Whanganui. All shortlisted dummies will be exhibited at 11 different photobook festivals starting next month at PhotoIreland Festival in Dublin, travelling to Triennial of Photography Hamburg, then onto Organ Vida – International Photography Festival in Zagreb and finishing at The Tokyo Art Book Fair in Spring 2019. Particularly poignant for me is that my book will also be on display in my hometown of Aarhus in Denmark as part of Photobook Week Aarhus, 04 – 07 October. Thanks to all jury members for selecting Te Ahi Kā - The Fires of Occupation for the Kassel Dummy Award 2018. Fotobookfestival #teahika

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Interview on BBC Radio Jersey about Masterplan Project Archive /  by Martin Toft

Earlier this evening we were talking with Carrie on the radio about our new online campaign to get Jersey residents involved in sharing images, experiences and memories of working in the financial service sector to our Masterplan Project Archive. Interview begins around 2:09:59. Thanks for listening. #masterplan, #archisle, #jerseyfinance https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05x7wl9#play

Masterplan Project Archive goes public /  by Martin Toft

As part of the Masterplan Project we are interested in establishing an archive where Jersey residents and workers from a variety of professions within the financial services industry can share images, experiences and memories that reflect on working practices across all sectors: banking, wealth management, trusts, funds, corporate, fiduciary, investment, estates management, legal, compliance, regulatory, accountancy, insurance, philanthropy, digital and marketing.

We are interested in looking at any imagery that may exist internally in company records, public archives and private collections showing office work, business environments, employee/staff portraits, working practices, boardroom meetings, business trips, corporate events and CSR activities, or images used in corporate literature and marketing material.

Additionally, we are looking for volunteers with experience of working within the industry either at present, or in the past who are willing to be interviewed about their job and work. This will be an informal conversation arranged at a mutually convenient time at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive. All recorded material will be confidential/anonymized where requested and establish an internal audio archive that will act as research to inform further project development. Volunteers are also needed in the future to act as models for the production of new photographic work that involves portraiture on location.

How you can get involved: Images and video can be uploaded to our Masterplan Project Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/masterplan.je/) or you can submit photographs either by email to info@masterplan.je or visit the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive at 7 Pier Road, St Helier with prints or other relevant visual material.

 

New covers for Te Ahi Kā /  by Martin Toft

Two beautiful new covers by designer Ania Nałęcka-Milach hand-drawn digitally from two photographs of fern and embers from the Whanganui River for my forthcoming book Te Ahi Kā - The Fires of Occupation. Two versions of the cover will provide the reader with two choices, either a cover with fern representing a female version of the book, or a male version featuring a cover image of embers. Travelling the Whanganui River Māori women uses the fern as a way of purification, protection and prayer. In the past the men would carry the fire using embers wrapped in a Ponga tree (silver fern) from one village to another as a symbol of occupation. Today,  Māori are returning to their ancestral land as Treaty settlements are slowly resolved with the New Zealand government. Te Ahi Kā is more then a physical marker, spiritually it re-awakens the mauri - the life-force - and becomes a fire of ambition inside each individual.